A programmer automated their data-entry job. Now: tell their employer?

https://qz.com/1019161/a-programmer-automated-their-data-entry-job-now-the-question-is-whether-to-tell-their-employer

by submeta • 9 years ago

22 16 9 years ago

redmattred• 9 years ago

This article is almost entirely direct quotes from a forum thread with little to no commentary or narrative on top of it.

bistian• 9 years ago

Yeah, it's an aggregation of comments from HN, Reddit and Stack Exchange, and a couple of examples of this happening before. Might be helpful for people who missed it but kinda silly to post it to HN

campground• 9 years ago

Maybe it was automatically generated.

partisan• 9 years ago

When I automated the documentation of nightly job processes using Tivoli Maestro configuration files and Visio, my employer didn't know what to do with me so they promoted me. It never crossed my mind not to say something. I wasn't there to produce output. I was there to bring value to the organization.

At another employer, I worked alongside a customer service rep who automated much of the time consuming work he had to do. He wasn't a programmer by trade, but having a hacker mindset, he learned to do so after tiring of the same old work. Despite the annoyance of the security team and other developers who felt threatened by his work, he was promoted to IT and they locked down the workstations so it wouldn't happen again.

patcheudor• 9 years ago

Despite the annoyance of the security team and other developers who felt threatened by his work

Depending on what he did the security team may have rightfully had issues with the work. I've seen it time and time again. Someone automates something, the tool gets released to users and it's full of SQLi, XSS, and RCE vulnerabilities, sometimes opening up a once protected data-set or systems to company or Internet wide exposure. It's shadow IT/Dev work like this which tends to be responsible for the most security incidents.

austinshea• 9 years ago

It's shadow IT/Dev work like this which tends to be responsible for the most security incidents.

Most security incidents? Sounds unsubstantiated.

tyingq• 9 years ago

I remember a similar story about a developer that outsourced their work to a low cost offshore worker. Can't find it now...Google fu is off today.

snug• 9 years ago

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jan/17/business/la-fi-mo-ma...

kirykl2• 9 years ago

"Your replacement won't understand" I've heard that over and over. So I say "No boss I didn't use VBA or JavaScript to generate these reports" It would get me fired.

77pt77• 9 years ago

What do you do?

kirykl2• 9 years ago

Business analysis for a Fortune 500. I've been asked to write an SOP that any random person can understand if I want use VBA. Instead of writing a text book I just say it's done without it.

based2• 9 years ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/4nd8q4/pro...

Houshalter• 9 years ago

There's a story by Feynman where he automates some simple thing on his first job. It was some kind of telephone system, and he attached strings to the lines so he could see where the call was coming from in another room. And he got in trouble for it because his boss didn't understand it or appreciate it. The moral of the story was that people don't generally like innovation or change. Especially if it's just your time being saved and not theirs. If you can get away with it, don't tell your employer.

merricksb• 9 years ago

Heavily discussed 2 days ago:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14656945 (660 points, 506 comments)

petra• 9 years ago

I don't understand whole this ethics talk, should ethics be 2 sided ? do companies usually do their part ?

watertorock• 9 years ago

A reblog vomit with a garbage bait headline composed of comments on hackernews? What a turd of an "article" and I assume it represents all of "qz.com" quality

A programmer automated their data-entry job. Now: tell their employer?

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